Office Hours
by Sweet Little Darling
Summary: AU. All Human. Sassy Katherine Pierce is the arrogant Elijah Mikaelson's assistant. They once dated in high school which ended in disaster. Now Elijah is her boss and engaged to be married. But old feelings never die. Kalijah.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Twenty seven year old Katherine Pierce gave a little sleepy moan as she turned to her side, hoping to get at least another second of precious sleep, though she knew she was kidding herself. It was Monday.

Monday was a workday, the beginning of the week, which meant the most important day for Katherine. Katherine worked as Elijah Mikaelson's assistant. Elijah was the CEO of Mikaelson & Co. a company specializing in anything electronic from DVD players to computers. They were one of the lead rivals of the Apple Company which meant that even though Katherine was an assistant she felt like the actual CEO half of the time.

Katherine wondered how she had gotten stuck with the job from hell in the first place. But she thought that the better question was why was she still working for the pompous, holier than thou Elijah? The question was simple: she didn't want to be homeless.

And also she had been working as his assistant for the past three years might as well die with the place, right?

Katherine's head was pounding and then she remembered what she had been doing Sunday night. She should have stayed home and watched the evening news or a rerun of The Voice, but instead her outgoing and reckless friend Caroline had insisted that she, Katherine, and Bonnie go drinking at eight o'clock Sunday evening for 2x1 Margaritas and tequila shots. Big mistake.

Katherine was already feeling the hangover which probably wouldn't disappear until this afternoon at the earliest.

She wrinkled her nose when she felt the sun coming through the window in her dingy apartment in downtown, New York City. Wait, the sun? She usually got up before the sun got up. Her brown eyes opened. Crap.

She looked down and looked at the alarm that she had probably knocked down in her sleep. "Shit!" she cried out when she saw the digital numbers: 8:09 AM. She was supposed to be at the office by nine with Elijah's coffee already prepared, plus it took half an hour to arrive at the office every morning because of traffic.

There was no way that Katherine would make it in time. And if there was one thing that Elijah hated was tardiness. She got out of bed and stared at herself in her bathroom mirror, her curls were all over the place, her mouth felt dry, and there was mascara and lipstick from the night before splattered all over her face. She was going to kill Caroline the next time she saw her.

She quickly turned on the sink faucet and splashed her face to get the makeup off, there was no time to shower. She brushed her hair into a messy ponytail and quickly walked towards her closet, she would do her make up in the car. Katherine walked towards her closer and pulled out a black pencil skirt and a white blouse, she slipped into a pair of black flats, something she rarely did, but she was in no mood to wear heels today.

Katherine felt the pressure getting to her, she couldn't be late She just couldn't.

Katherine grabbed her handbag and practically ran out the door, knocking down whoever came her way. She jogged down the stairs while at the same time checking her cell phone-8:34, if she was lucky, then she could probably arrive before Elijah came through the double doors.

Katherine had to get there in time. There was no other option.

-End of Chapter One-

The next chapter will be longer, I promise! What do you think so far? :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_She had been a sweet, innocent freshman._

_He had been the clever senior adored by everyone._

_One bet._

_One mistake . . . That lead to many regrets._

* * *

"Can't you go any faster?" Katherine screeched into the taxi driver's ear, but even as she heard herself practically shout she knew it was a pointless wish. It was Monday morning in New York City, which meant it was as crowded as Disneyland on a Saturday. There were dozens of cars in front of her own taxi. She looked at her watch 8:56 AM. Four more minutes. "Sir?"

The taxi driver looked back at her, obviously annoyed. "Look, lady there is nothing I can do. So deal with it."

Katherine sat back in the seat nervously tapping her foot. Her brown eyes caught the building of where she was supposed to be working at the moment. Mikaelson & Co. headquarters was located near Fifth Avenue in a large midnight blue building that only stood apart from the others because of the elegant silver M in the middle.

Even the building was showy.

Katherine let out another irritated sigh.

"Look, lady if you're in such a hurry why don't you just walk from here?"

Katherine looked back at the building it was three or four blocks from here. Maybe she could make it if she ran. She opened her purse and grabbed a fistful off bills and practically threw them at the driver. "Thanks!"

She grabbed her purse, ignoring the angry beeps coming from the other cars. She fought the urge to give them the middle finger. The sidewalks were almost as bad as the streets they were covered with people almost as impatient as her. Katherine started jogging as fast as she could trying not to bump into anyone while at the same time looking at her watch.

She was doing fine, until she felt herself fall. Everything was dizzy for a few minutes.

"Are you ok, Katherine?"

Katherine looked up and everything was dizzy for a few seconds, then she wanted to die of embarrassment. Her friend, colleague, and accountant for Mikaelson & Co. Stefan Salvatore was staring at her as he offered his hand to help her up.

Katherine, gratefully accepted his hand and he pulled her up easily. "Thank you." She looked down and saw that her knee was bloody and that the things from her bag were thrown all over the floor. "Crap."

"Late?" Stefan guessed as he helped put her many stuff into her bag.

"Wild guess?" she asked dryly.

Stefan shrugged sheepishly. "Everyone is late sometimes. Shouldn't you get a band aid?" he asked noticing her bloody knee. "There is a pharmacy right here."

She shook her head and they continued walking, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in her knee. "I'm fine and believe me no one is late concerning Elijah Mikaelson, especially his assistant."

Stefan looked like he had a hard time believing her, which wasn't surprising. Stefan was Elijah's favorite. While Katherine, well let's just say she wasn't his favorite for a number of things. For one, they always kept butting heads.

They reached the front door of the building and Katherine sighed as she looked at Stefan. "Anyway, thanks Stefan. Wish me luck."

* * *

Elijah Mikaelson stepped out of his car dressed impeccably like he always was in his white shirt, three piece suit, and black dress shoes. He handed his car keys to the valet like he did every morning.

"Good morning, Mr. Mikaelson." The valet greeted him eagerly as he took his keys.

"Good morning, Jerry." Elijah responded, half asleep. He wasn't usually awake until his first cup of coffee which Katherine had prepared as soon as he walked through the door like she had done for the past three years. Katherine may have a lot of faults, but at least she was efficient.

He walked through the double doors and headed towards the elevator, nodding hellos and welcomes as he passed. Once the elevator close, his cell phone started ringing. He picked it up without bothering to look at caller ID. "Hello?"

"Good morning, sweetheart." The voice cooed at the other end.

Elijah smiled as he looked at the elevator number. Only nine more floors until he reached his office. "Good morning, sweetheart." At the other end was his fiancée, Elena Gilbert. Elena and Elijah had been dating since college and last Christmas he had finally asked her to marry him which thrilled both families.

Elijah knew that he couldn't find a more perfect match. Elena had gone to law school at Yale and she was a successful lawyer while Elijah had inherent his father's company when he decided to retire after a mild heart attack. Elena was everything Elijah ever dreamed off in a wife. She was smart, educated, beautiful, and very proper.

She was the kind of wife that everyone expected him to have. The wife of a CEO.

"I just arrived at the office." He said as the elevator doors clicked open.

Elena groaned. "Don't tell me, I have a bunch of work to get done myself. How about dinner tonight? And afterwards, maybe we can be alone, just the two of us. I just went to Victoria's Secret and I bought some very nice things-"

"I can't today." Elijah responded coolly. "I'm busy. You know that Monday are always my busiest days."

Elena let out a huff and sounded annoyed at the other end. "Why do you always have to work?" she whined. "You never spend any time with me, Elijah. I mean I'm your fiancée I thought we would be spending more time together."

Elijah sighed. "We will, Elena, but I am CEO the company isn't going to run itself. I promise we'll do something Friday."

"I have to wait until Friday?"

Elijah noticed that the comment only seemed to make her angrier and Elijah was in no mood to deal with it. At least not without coffee or liquor in his system. He loved Elena, but she could be demanding and needy at times. "I have to go, Elena. I'll call you later."

"Bye, Elijah." Elijah couldn't help but noticed that her tone was considerably icier.

The top floor of the building was specifically designed to cater to his needs. It had his own large, private office and a conference room plus a private bathroom. There were two desk stationed on the floor. One belonging to his secretary, the blond Caroline Forbes, the other belonging to Katherine Pierce.

He noticed that all though Caroline was dutifully at her desk looking more asleep than awake, Katherine's desk was empty. It was obvious that she hadn't arrived.

Elijah felt a ping of annoyance. She knew better than anyone that he hated when people were late and he remembered telling her during her interview that her biggest mistake that she could make was tardiness. For a second, Elijah briefly thought that something must have happened to her, but he also remembered that Katherine could be very vain and more than likely had spent extra time on her make up.

"Miss Forbes." Caroline looked up. "Do you know where your coworker is?"

Caroline squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. "No, I don't Mr. Mikaelson I'm sorry. She's probably running a little late."

Elijah pressed his index fingers on the bridge of his nose as if begging the lord to give him strength. "All right, please tell Miss Petrova." He said using her Bulgarian surname that she rarely used. "To come to my office the minute she decides to grace us with her presence. I would like some coffee as well."

"Yes, sir."

-End of Chapter Two-

Thank you for your reviews!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

_Flashback_

Seventeen year old Elijah pressed a fifteen year old Katherine against his bed and started kissing her neck. The rest of his house was empty, it was only him and his innocent, naïve little Katherine.

Katherine let out a nervous giggle. She had only been dating Elijah for a few weeks, she was only fifteen, a freshman. She wasn't sure if she was ready for the next step.

She felt Elijah fondled her small breasts under her blouse as he started pulling her blouse forward. Katherine felt as he quickly unhooked her bra and gave her left breast a small squeeze.

Katherine felt an air of excitement and nervousness spread through her. She felt Elijah's growing erection being pressed against her belly. "Elijah," she murmured, her cheeks flushed. "I'm not sure . . . I've never done this before."

"Shh," he kissed her. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

_End of Flashback_

* * *

Katherine watched the numbers impatiently on the elevator. Eight floor . . . Ninth floor . . . Tenth floor, thank God. The elevators clicked open with a small beep as if almost mocking her and only until she saw Caroline typing and looking at her with wide blue eyes did she start to guess that she didn't look as 100% like she usually did.

Usually, she was careful with her clothing and occasionally received compliments on her outfits, but she knew that she was far from a beauty queen today. Still, Caroline could be a little helpful and not look at her as if she saw a ghost.

"What happened?" Caroline practically screeched as she stood up and walked towards her. Her friend looked like she had been attacked in the middle of the street. Her clothes were fine, but her makeup was a mess, her hair was tangled, and there was blood on her knee.

Katherine looked at Caroline annoyed and tried to control her temper. She knew it wasn't Caroline's fault, she had been the one drinking nonstop margaritas last night, but that did not mean that she still didn't silently blame her. "Last night? 2X1 margaritas? I just had to be there."

Caroline palmed her hand against her forehead. "Duh! What happened?"

"What do you think happen?" she growled. "I woke up late, there was traffic everywhere, and I tripped to top it all off."

"You look like you just came out of a battlefield."

"Not helping, Caroline."

Caroline gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry, and not to make matters worse, but the boss wants to see you and he's kind of . . . pissed. Well, you know how obsessive he is about some things."

"And possessive and controlling and damn right insane." Katherine replied bitterly. She had been expecting this of course, but a small part of her had hoped that she wouldn't have had to deal with it. "Well, I better go talk to the master."

"Wait, aren't you going to clean up your knee?"

"Why?" she snapped. "He's going to be too busy yelling at me to notice."

Katherine stared at the door of Elijah's office. The black words Elijah Mikaelson, CEO seemed to mock her. Katherine twisted the handle open and was immediately greeted with the clean, rose scented smell that was always in Elijah's office because he and his girlfriend, excuse her his darling fiancée Elena Gilbert spent so much time sucking faces in there.

Katherine found Elijah flipping through a set of papers, but Katherine knew that he wasn't reading. The bastard had been anticipated her arrival. An untouched cup of coffee laid on his desk, it was obvious that Caroline had prepared him the coffee and that he didn't like it.

The man was picky about his coffee and only Katherine knew how to prepare it. Elijah only liked a teaspoon of sugar and a tiny amount of 2% milk. It was clear that Caroline's coffee hadn't meet his satisfaction.

"Katerina, it is customary to knock," he said rolling the r in Katerina.

Katherine felt herself blush, Elijah knew how it irritated her for someone to call her by her given name, Katerina. Katherine and her parents had emigrated from Bulgaria when Katherine had been two years old. Her father had switched her surname from Petrova to Pierce because he wanted a more Americanized surname, but Katherine had been stuck with Katerina.

Katherine hated the name Katerina, and Elijah knew that and he still called her by that name. Katherine started hating her name ever since preschool when the other children and even her teachers couldn't pronounce her name, they kept calling her Katrina. So ever since then Katerina has insisted on people calling her Katherine and very few people knew of her given name.

But Elijah knew and he still called her that to piss Katherine off.

"It's rude to come barging in without knocking." He didn't bother glancing from his paper. "Please exit and try again."

Katherine glared at him. "You can't be serious."

Elijah finally looked up with a poker face. "Oh, I am entirely serious and will you please hurry my time is limited you know."

Sighing loudly, Katherine turned around, closed the door and a second later it sounded like she was punching the door. A small smirk came across Elijah's face. "Please, come on in."

Katherine closed the door behind her. "Happy now?"

"Not really." He pointed to the clock. "Can you tell me what time it is?"

"9:38 AM."

"Exactly, Katerina," he said sarcasm oozing from his voice as he stood up and rested his back against the desk. "You're supposed to be in my office at nine sharp, not a second later with my coffee prepared. That's your job, Katerina. That's what I'm paying you to do."

"I know that." She said trying to control her temper as she approached him. She couldn't help but notice that without her heels she was at least one foot shorter than him. "It won't happen again, Mr. Mikaelson."

Elijah stared at her for a few seconds before he pressed his thumb against her chin and raised it slightly. "It better not."

Then he felt something hot on his lap. He jumped and cursed. "Fuck!"

"Sorry," she said sweetly putting down the coffee cup. "But you said you preferred how I did your coffee."

Elijah glared at her, still cursing under his breath. "Katerina, don't you dare leave-"

"Oh, I'm not leaving." She stared at his lap. "Just going to the bathroom to freshen up. You better take care of that Mr. Mikaelson, and please call me Katherine."

-End of Chapter Three-

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the Kalijah interaction :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Katherine couldn't believe what she had done. She had actually dropped hot, burning coffee in Elijah's lap. Her boss's lap. The one who had the power to fire her. Knowing Elijah he would probably sue her.

Katherine didn't know what had posses her to do it in the first place. She had just gotten so mad at him. She was rarely late, just to avoid his dramatic acts but it pissed her off even more than he called her Katerina even though he knew perfectly well that he hated that name and that he had grabbed her chin as if she were some bratty three year old.

She had wanted to get even with him. Though pouring coffee on him, might not have been the smartest plan.

She had left Elijah cursing her name in his office with an anxious Caroline while Katherine had darted into the ladies' bathroom all the way down to the second floor.

Katherine felt like an idiot hiding in the empty bathroom, but it was the only thing she could do to hide from Elijah's wrath and avoid bursting into tears. Katherine rarely cried, but Elijah seemed to be able to put her in situations that made her want to pull her hair out.

Katherine glanced at herself in the mirror and stared at herself for a few seconds, before she pulled out a brush from her bag and started brushing down her curls that had become trapped in her messy ponytail. She cleaned the smudges of mascara under her eyes and then started putting on lipstick.

Katherine noticed that her clothes were rumpled, but at least they were clean. Suddenly, she wished that she was wearing heels instead of flats, without heels she was at least one foot shorter than Elijah, which only made him much more intimidating.

Katherine grabbed a piece of toiler paper and dip it under the faucet. She started clearing up the blood from her bloody knee, wincing as the cold, water touched her injure knee. "Ow."

The self centered bastard, hadn't even asked if she was ok. _Of course he hadn't_, she though bitterly _with him is me, me, me!_  
Once she finished with her beauty routine, twenty minutes had passed. Katherine sat in the sink counter looking at her phone. There were a few messages from Caroline that she had ignored and a picture text from Bonnie asking her opinion of a certain dress. Bonnie was a party planner, which meant that she always needed fancy clothes for when hosting events.

Katherine was just answering Bonnie back when she heard a knock on the door, or a punch was a better word. It sounded like someone was trying to knock the door down with their fist, which Katherine found strange. The second floor was the copy and fax room which meant that it was mostly empty and that people rarely used the bathrooms there.

"KATERINA!" Elijah's voice roared. "I know you're there! Answer the door!"

Katherine tried to crouch on the sink, trying to keep her legs from dangling. She tried to keep herself from breathing. _Play dead, play dead _she told herself.

"I can see your bag and shoes on the floor, Katerina." he snapped. The only way that he could have realized that was if he had peeked through the crack on the bottom of the door. Was he really that desperate?

Katherine didn't attempt to move and when he didn't answer, Katherine felt herself relax. Mr. Important CEO had probably gotten bored. Good. Katherine would resign by email.

Suddenly the door opened and Elijah came storming through the door and it took all of Katherine's willpower not to burst out laughing at his coffee covered clothes. "What are you doing on top of the counter?"

Katherine refused to look frightened. What kind of freak stormed into a woman's bathroom? "Fixing my hair."

Elijah mumbled something under his breath, before he suddenly placed both hands against her waist and quickly placed her down. He pressed Katherine against the counter and pressed both arms against each side, so that she wouldn't escape again.

Her face was literally only a few inches away from his, and Katherine couldn't help but noticed that he looked older even though he was only thirty. It suited him.

"Katerina, would you mind explaining what on earth possessed you to spill coffee," he looked down to his dirty suit. "On my Armani suit?"

"Oh, I'm sorry did I ruin you precious suit?" she said sarcastically. "And I told you, my name is Katherine. You know that."

Elijah leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "You know I have always preferred Katerina. You've been such trouble lately, what am I going to do with you?"

Katherine pushed him away. "You're not going to do anything!" she snapped. "I'm quitting."

Elijah's face twisted in anger. "You certainly are not."

"Yes, I am. I'm quitting." she wiggled out of his grip. "It's been nice working for you, Mr. Mikaelson."

Elijah stared at her, and said in a eerily calm voice. "I'm warning you, Katerina that if you quit I will make sure that you don't find a job anywhere, Katerina. And there can't be many jobs for people with only a high school diploma, especially in such an expensive city like New York."

Katherine narrowed her brown eyes in disbelief. "Are you threatening me?"

"No." he replied. "Just a friendly piece of advice."

He smirked when he saw that Katherine didn't budge. Elijah walked besides her and paused as he turned towards her. "Can you please call my maid, Dora to send some extra clothes, reschedule my meeting with Mr. Victor Fabio, and email me any additional information. Thank you, Katerina."

* * *

"Hey, how did it go?" Caroline approached her gently, when Elijah, Stefan, and Mr. Colton stepped into the meeting room for a meeting.

Katherine looked up from her computer. "How do you think it went?"

"I'm sorry, Kat." she bit her lip. "Are you fired?"

She shook her head, but decided not to mention the conversation with Elijah in the bathroom. "Not today."

Caroline looked relief as she giggled. "Did you see how mad he was? I have never seen him so angry."

"It is a pretty good look on him."

"I'm going to lunch, want to come it's your lunch hour too."

"And have Elijah come murder me in my sleep, no thanks." Katherine sighed as she looked at the papers next to her, trying to ignored her grumbling belly. She hadn't eaten breakfast either. "I have too much to do, Care. Thanks, though."

"Don't you want me to bring you anything?"

Katherine thought for a moment before she shook her head. She hated eating at her desk. "Nope, I'm fine. Have a good lunch, Caroline."

-End of Chapter Four-

Elena, will show up in the next chapter : )


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

_Flashback_

The whispers were loud among the crowded hallways of the high school. Teenagers in all grade levels whispered among each other and giggled, but stopped when a fifteen year old Katherine passed through them.

Katherine blushed. They thought that she couldn't hear them, but they were wrong. Katherine was hearing everything. When Katherine was fifteen she had been short, shy, and very sweet. As sweet as honey, her mother used to say.

But that was what made it all the more easier for people to take advantage of her. Katherine was a dreamer. She was too trusting. Too hopeful. Too eager to fit in, to be loved. Which made it all the more easier for a sexy, popular senior like Elijah to take advantage of her.

"Did you hear . . .?"

". . . yeah, I know, can you believe she fell for it? Well, freshmen have always been stupid."

"What did you think he said to her to get her into his bed? Think he will fess up?"

"Such a slut."

"I wouldn't mind winning a bet like that."

Katherine bit her lip and struggled to hold back the tears.

That was all she was. A bet. A play thing. A used Kleenex. Use it once. Throw it away. And Katherine hated Elijah for making her feel this way.

_End of flashback_

* * *

Katherine's stomach was grumbling and she felt very tired. Her pounding headache, her injured knee, and her grumbling stomach that kept whining that it was hungry didn't make her feel any better. It was just making her cranky.

She looked at the clock, six o'clock. She should have been home by now, sleeping off the day but she was still at Mikaelson & Co. making up for lost time. Caroline had long since gone home like most of the other employees.

One of the few people left, was Elijah who normally stayed until about eight o'clock every night. Except on those rare nights when he had a date with Elena or when he went to a charity event.

Katherine's tired eyes looked at the numbers on the copy machine. Only three more copies and she was done. Yes.

She just needed to finish these copies, drop them off in the meeting room and then she was free until tomorrow.

"Katherine, you're still here?" Stefan asked looking surprised.

"I'm almost finish," she gave him a little smile. "What about you?"

"I'm already done for the day, just came back to pick up some copies that Amy left for me," he winced when he saw her knee. Stefan pulled out a band aid from his suit pocket and handed it to her. Katherine took it from him and placed the Spiderman band air on her knee. "Sorry about that, it's the only one I have. Are you almost done?"

Katherine started rearranging the papers neatly. "Well, it's a good thing I like Spiderman and I'm free as soon as his highness lets me go."

Stefan chuckled and the next words came out almost immediately. "Would you like to go out to dinner? With me?" he said quickly. "Not tonight since you're working, but maybe some other time?"

Katherine gaped at him. She had to admit that this coming from Stefan wasn't totally unexpected. She had known that Stefan had had a little crush on her for ages, but she didn't feel the same way. She loved Stefan as a friend and she knew she was stupid for not going out with such a hardworking, caring guy, but she didn't want to ruin their friendship by leading him on.

"Stefan, that's really nice of you, but." Her voice broke, she wasn't used to turning guys down. "But, no thank you. Maybe we can go some other time as friends, with Caroline or maybe Damon."

Stefan looked a bit crestfallen, but tried not to show it. "Of course." He gave her a small kiss on the cheek. "Good night, Katherine."

* * *

Katherine was just closing the meeting room and locking it behind her when she felt a rush of dizziness. She shook her head, trying to get rid of it, but it only seemed to make it worse. She took a step forward and everything turned black as she passed out on the floor.

* * *

Elijah was just stepping out of the elevator when he frowned. He was expecting the floor to be empty. Caroline and Katherine usually left around five, while he left a little while later. And then he saw her.

Katherine was completely passed out on the floor in front of the meeting room. Elijah rushed towards her, kneeling besides her. He felt his pulse racing. What had happened? What was wrong with Katherine?

"Katerina? Katerina?" he gave her small slaps across the face in hope that she would wake up. He could hear the panic on his voice. "Katherine, wake up, please." He unbuttoned her blazer a little and pressed two fingers against her throat. Her heart was still beating and she was breathing.

Elijah was about to call an ambulance when Katherine's brown eyes fluttered open. She looked around confused. "'Lijah." She murmured.

Elijah closed his eyes in relief. "Thank god."

Katherine, however didn't appreciate the concern. She stood up almost as quickly as she passed out. She noticed that the dizziness was still there, though not as bad.

"What are you doing?" Elijah snapped as he gripped her wrist and forced Katherine to sit on top of her desk. "You just fainted, woman, you can't just walk around like nothing happened!"

Katherine narrowed her brown eyes, just because she had a moment of weakness, did not mean that she was going to take Elijah's shouts lying down. It wasn't as if she wanted to faint. In fact it was beyond embarrassing. "One, I have a name thank you very much, and two you can't tell me what I can or cannot do."

"I'm sure, I can Katerina." He said sarcastically, the worry had already disappeared. "Since obviously that fall affected your head. You just fainted in the middle of my office. We need to take you to a doctor or the hospital-"

"Calm down and stopped overanalyzing." She interrupted. "It's probably because I haven't eaten anything all day. I'll eat some Lucky Charms at home or something and it will be gone in the morning."

This remark only seemed to make Elijah angrier. "Why haven't you eaten anything all day? Surely, a grow woman like yourself knows that she needs to eat in order for a body to function."

"I know that." She snapped back. "Excuse me, if eating is not in my priorities because I half killed myself trying to get to work this morning."

"You have a lunch hour if I'm not mistaken and I understand that you're quite popular in the office, surely, Miss Forbes could have brought you something to eat."

Katherine opened her mouth to argue, but nothing came out.

Elijah handed her, her purse and then motion for her to follow him. "Come on."

Katherine stared at him, puzzled. "Where are we going?"

"I'm taking you home," Elijah told her as if she were a five year old. "I don't want to run the risk of you passing out and getting run over by a bus."

Katherine huffed. "Believe me, I don't get that lucky."

-End of Chapter Five-

I'm sorry, I know I promised Elena in this chapter, but I decided to add this little scene instead :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

His driver, Charles who Elijah had called at the last minute to drive them both home stopped in front of a pair of modest apartment buildings. Charles turned back to him. "Here we are, sir."

"Yes, I know." Elijah said as he looked back at Katherine who had fallen asleep on his arm. "I don't think she does. Give us a minute, Charles."

Charles nodded as he exited the car and went to smoke a cigar in the corner of the street until he waited for his boss's signal.

Elijah waited patiently for Katherine to wake up, but when she didn't he stared at her curiously. Katerina, no his Katerina hadn't really changed at all since he had meet her back when she had been a sweet little freshman. They both had gone to a small high school in the middle of nowhere in Virginia-Mystic Falls high school before both of them had ended up in New York one way or another.

Katherine's face only looked a little older, her face had lost her baby fat to replace them with sharp cheekbones and her heart shaped face was perfectly done with makeup. She no longer had the cute, innocent doe eyes that Elijah used to love. Her head was above Elijah's nose and Elijah could smell her strawberry shampoo and her Chanel perfume that she had been wearing since she started working for him.

Katherine gave a little growl in her sleep, but she didn't wake up. There was a little drool forming in the corner of her mouth. She really was tired. Elijah was starting to feel a little guilty about the way that he had treated her.

Elijah gave her shoulder a small shake. "Katerina, Katerina."

It took a while for Katherine to be shaken awake, her brown eyes looked around confused until her eyes settled on Elijah. She flushed. "I fell asleep?" she wiped the little drool from her face. Great, she had drool on him and fallen asleep on him. Great way to make an impression, Pierce.

He smirked. "What do you think?"

Katherine scowled. "You don't have to be a jerk about it."

"A jerk, I'm offended Miss Pierce." He said as he opened the door. "Especially since I brought you home."

"I didn't ask you to bring me home." Katherine pointed out, the last thing she wanted was for Elijah to feel as if he was somehow her savior or that she was some damsel in distress. "You were the one that stubbornly insisted to bring me home, even though I'm perfectly capable of taking a taxi."

"Excuse me for being considerate," he exited the car, opened the door for her and offered his hand to help her out.

Katherine ignored him as she got out by herself and walked past him. An amused smile twitched on Elijah's face. "No need to be rude, Katerina."

"I won't waste my breath, correcting you. Thanks for the ride." She huffed as she walked towards her apartment .A second later she heard footsteps following her, Elijah was walking at a lazier pace behind her. "Can I help you? Why are you following me?"

"I just want to make sure that you get home safe, is that a crime?" he asked innocently as Katherine jabbed the key in her apartment door. "We both know that your accident prone." He said motioning towards her knee.

"This was caused by you," she snapped as she opened the door and got in. She looked through the door. "And no you're not allowed to come in. Good night." She slammed the door in his face.

Elijah gave a silent smile as he walked back to his car. His cell phone rang with an incoming call from Elena. He pressed ignored and walked back to his car. At least Katherine hadn't lost her spunk.

* * *

The next morning Katherine actually managed to get there on time and was responding to emails and setting meetings when Elijah walked through the door. Caroline and Katherine responded with their usual. "Good morning, Mr. Mikaelson."

Only this time instead of Elijah just saying morning back and going straight into his office he stopped in front of Katherine's desk. Katherine looked up. "Yes?"

"Did you eat today?" he asked sounding almost stern.

"Are you seriously going to ask me that question every morning?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. When Elijah didn't budge, she sighed. "Yes, dad I ate something. There, happy?"

"I'm not unhappy." He said as he slipped into his office. "Don't let anyone disturb me."

When Elijah closed the door behind him, Caroline walked towards her and slammed her palm in her desk. "What was that about?"

"What do you mean?"

Caroline rolled her blue eyes. "Don't pretend, Kat. Since when are you and the boss all buddy buddy? Last time I checked you two wanted to strangle each other."

"Nothing happen." Katherine replied. She really didn't want to discuss last night with Caroline, she loved Caroline but the girl was such a romantic, she could turn everything into a fairytale romance. "He's just being a smart ass like usual."

Before Caroline could ask more the elevator rang signalizing that they had a visitor. "Someone's coming, scram!"

The shiny elevator doors opened to present Elijah's fiancée, the lawyer Elena Gilbert-the future Mrs. Mikaelson. Katherine didn't like Elena, she didn't know why since they had barely spoke ten words to each other even since Elijah and Elena had started dating. There was just something too pure and Miss Perfect about her.

Elena was a tall young woman, with big, childlike brown eyes and plain straight hair. Katherine had never seen the woman wear bright make up. She was wearing a plain dark blue skirt and jacket combo and a pair of black high heels. She was carrying a designer purse-a gift from Elijah no doubt on her right hand.

She was obviously in a bad mood because she didn't offer any greeting instead she just simply said. "Is Elijah in?"

"Yes, this is his office," Katherine replied snarkily. "Miss Gilbert."

Elena's jaw tightened. "Well, can I go see him?"

"Um," Caroline stood up. "Miss Gilbert, Mr. Mikaelson asked us not to disturb him-"

"I am his fiancée," Elena snapped. "Surely you can make an exception."

Caroline opened here mouth to argue, but Katherine waved her away. She picked up the phone and dialed Elijah's number.

"Katerina?"

"It hasn't gotten old, has it? Your fiancée is here to see you."

There was a pause before Elijah said. "Let her in."

Katherine hang up and said to Elena. "Go on ahead."

-End of Chapter Six-


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

_Flashback_

"What is it, Katherine?" Elijah said as his eyes started shifting back and forth through the empty hallways. "We need to be in class."

"I know." Katherine bit her pinky nail. "It's just . . . I heard . . . did you sleep with me because of a bet?"

Elijah didn't answer.

"Elijah?" her voice lowered into a pathetic sounding whine. "I heard that you slept with me because of a bet you made with your friends . . . it's not true is it? Is it?"

Elijah shuffled his feet nervously. "Look, Kat. . .you're a sweet girl, a nice girl . . . I just don't have time for a relationship right now."

Katherine bit her lip. "So it is true." Elijah didn't respond.

Elijah ruffled her curls. "See you around, kid."

Katherine watched as Elijah walked away. The tears slowly started pouring down her face.

_End of Flashback_

* * *

Elijah braced himself as his fiancée, Elena Gilbert closed the door with a thump and let herself in without bothering to knock. She was perfectly dressed even though it was only nine in the morning. It was clear that she had come to visit Elijah before she went into work that morning.

Yay.

Without a single word of greeting she crossed her arms over her chest, in an almost childishly way. "You haven't been answering my calls, Elijah."

"Good morning to you too." Elijah said pretending to be occupied checking papers and staring at his blank computer screen. "And I've been busy."

"Too busy to return a single phone call?" Elena felt her temper rising. She hated it that even though she and Elijah had been dating for a few years he still treated her like am employee.

Elijah held back a sigh. He knew that ignoring Elena Gilbert always came at a consequence, thankfully she was easy to please. Most of the time.

He walked towards her and placed a hand on her bottom, before resting it on the small of her waist. With his left hand, he started pulling up her skirt. He was just pulling down the waistband of her panties when Elena pushed his hand away.

"Will you behave?" she hissed at him as she put down her skirt. "We are not having sex in your office. Especially right now while your secretaries can see and hear us."

"Assistants." Elijah corrected as he nibbled on her ear. "And that never seem to bother you before, my dear."

There was a small trace of a flush in Elena's cheeks before she said coolly. "Well, it does now. Besides it's indecent and we're getting married in a few months, so we should try and behave ourselves."

"You make getting married so much fun." Elijah replied sarcastically as he let her go. "And not to be rude, but I really do have work to do."

Elena pouted as she placed a hand on Elijah's bicep. "All right, but I made reservations for tonight at The Palace. We could discuss some things for the wedding. Eight o'clock." She waited.

Elijah dutifully kissed her. "I'll see you there."

Elena nodded as she grabbed her purse. "Also you might want to get better assistants. The blond one is definitely an airhead and the brunette can be real bitchy."

"I like Caroline, she has spirit." Elijah defended her. His smile twitched as he forced himself to say Katherine's "real" name. "And Katherine well, bitchiness as you said its part of her personality. You get used to it, I'm afraid."

* * *

"Do you think they are having office sex in there?" Caroline whispered to Katherine from her desk. Every once in a while she turned her head backwards towards Elijah's office where no sounds were coming out since it was a soundproof office. "Like in those Mexican soap operas that we sometimes watch, but we can't understand.

Katherine wrinkled her nose as she stopped typing up a contract. "I really don't want to think about it, let alone know."

"Oh, come on," Caroline rolled her blue eyes as she turned back towards the office. "Aren't you the least bit curious? Mr. Mikaelson doesn't really seem like the office sex type anyway."

"Neither does Elena." Katherine said, mimicking the brunette's high pitched voice. "Besides I think both of them are too prissy and proper to even have sex, let alone have sex in an office."

Caroline laughed as she grabbed a stack of papers, "You're probably right, I'm taking this to the copy room, and I'll be back in a few minutes. By the way, girls night out tonight-it's Bonnie's birthday tomorrow, but since she's going out with her parents we should take her out to celebrate."

"As long as there is no alcohol, I'll be fine." She said ruefully. "I got her a necklace from Tiffany's. Where are we going?"

"I made a reservation at some place called The Palace." She shrugged. "Anyway she has been dying to go."

Katherine was by herself when Elena stepped out of the office looking happier than when she had arrived. Elena didn't bother glancing in her direction as she went towards the elevator. "Good riddance."

She heard a chuckle behind her, she turned around and found Elijah smirking at her. She flushed. "I-"

"Oh, don't bother apologizing," Elijah replied. "I think we both know that my fiancée isn't the easiest person to deal with."

"I wasn't going to apologize." Katherine replied. "Actually."

"I wasn't expecting you too," he said as he turned around. "It would be very out of character for you, you could say."

* * *

"Wear this, and this," Caroline said as she threw Katherine a very short black dress that would probably give her mom a heart attack and the tiniest, frilliest pair of panties that Katherine had ever seen that would barely cover her bottom. "Put on you tallest pair of heels and you'll have a show."

"Yeah, as a stripper." Katherine said as she held the black dress towards the mirror. "This is a bit much for a birthday dinner, don't you think?"

"You can never know who you'll meet." Caroline said as she pointed to her own baby blue dress that looked like a first communion dress compare to Katherine's. "Besides it's just us girls, we can have fun dressing up."

Katherine paused for a moment before she took the frilly pair of panties from her bed. "All right, you convinced me, let me go change."

-End of Chapter Seven-


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

"Caroline, this dress keeps falling down." Katherine hissed as she tried to pull up the dress. "And you told me that I shouldn't wear a bra with this type of dress, I really don't want half of the restaurant to see my breasts!"

"You'll give them a free show at least," Caroline giggled. Easy for her to say, her dress was equally short, but it fit in all the right places and her breasts were smaller than Katherine's, plus she wasn't wearing trashy underwear. Katherine already regretted the fact that Caroline had convinced her to wear this type of dress to Bonnie's birthday dinner.

"Very funny."

"I'm not joking. Plenty of guys have gaped as you passed, who knows maybe we can get you a sugar daddy tonight." Caroline elbowed her playfully as she waved. "There's our beautiful birthday girl!"

Bonnie was dressed in a dark purple dress and her dark hair was cut into a cute bob. "Hi, guys you two look great!"

"You look pretty great yourself," Katherine handed her a pretty blue wrapped gift. "I love the new haircut."

Bonnie blushed as she pushed her dark hair from her face. "It's not too short is it?"

Caroline shook her head. "Nope, it's great. Let's hurry our reservations are for eight o'clock and we girlies didn't get this dress up for nothing."

The three of them linked arms as they entered the brightly lit restaurant. Bonnie gaped as she entered inside. "The Palace, I can believe you guys actually brought me here."

"You deserve it, Bon." Katherine replied as a waiter let them to a small table and handed them the menus. "Only one rule no drinking-I already got into enough trouble on Monday, thanks Caroline."

"Hey!" Caroline protested. "I wasn't the one who told you to drink those Margaritas like there was no tomorrow."

"It's fine." Bonnie replied. "We'll just stick with water. So what are you guys going to order?"

* * *

Elijah wasn't really that fond of fancy places, they were too much of a hassle, there was always a long wait even with a reservation, and honestly he was just as happy with a hamburger as with a steak. But he did most of the stuff to keep Elena happy.

Elena had dressed carefully in a proper white dress with her hair perfectly straightened and pulled back with a clip. She clutched on Elijah's arm tightly as if he were a life preserver. "There's our table."

As the two of them approached their table Elijah heard a very familiar voice say. "To friends!" followed by giggles and the clicking of glasses. Elijah turned his head slightly and gaped when he saw Katherine.

She was with Caroline and another woman with dark hair that Elijah didn't recognize. They were celebrating something and there was a big smile on her face that Elijah rarely saw. Her dark curls were messily done and her cheeks were flushed pink from happiness.

"Elijah?" Elena snapped. "The waiter has been waiting for you."

"Oh." Elijah said startled. "I'll have the red wine and the steak please."

The waiter nodded. "Right away sir, and for you madam?"

"The chicken ceaser salad and the white wine." Elena replied. "Please."

Elijah turned back to face his fiancée, Elena reached forward and gave his hand a squeeze. "I talked to your mother, we decided about 400 or 450 people for the reception, but she wants us to pick a date. I was thinking six months from now that should give me plenty of time. What do you think?"

"Yes, six months it's fine." Elijah forced himself to concentrate on the conversation. Katherine was his assistant. A thing of the past. He needed to focus on Elena his fiancée. Now if only Katherine's laugh weren't so contagious.

* * *

"Don't look now, but bossy pants and little miss perfect just walked in," Caroline murmured under her breath as she took a sip of her lemonade. Her blue eyes were widened in exaggerated surprise.

Bonnie put down her fork and discreetly looked over her shoulder. She briefly glance at Elijah. "He's cute!" Bonnie squealed. "Damn, I wish my boss was that fine. What's he like?"

"He's a conceited, arrogant ass." Was Katherine's swift reply.

Caroline shrugged. "Well, at least to Katherine. He ignores me half of the time."

"I could handle the conceited type." Bonnie shrugged.

Katherine wrinkled her nose. "No, you wouldn't, believe me if you had to work for him every single day."

"Well, what's his fiancée like?"

Caroline and Katherine exchanged looks before both of them responded. "A stuck up bitch."

The three of them burst into giggles, before Bonnie shook her head. "We shouldn't be mean."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Oh, believe me Bon she deserves mean. You don't know the kind of hell she puts us through every time she visits. I think it's worse ever since they got engaged."

"Ladies." A waiter placed three tequila shots in front of them.

"Um, we didn't order these." Bonnie protested.

"Yes, these are from the gentleman over at the bar." The waiter said motioning towards to two business men who were slightly looking at them from the bar. "And I quote, for you three beautiful ladies." He left.

Caroline stood up and grabbed her glass. "Come on, you two I'm going to show you the Caroline Forbes flirting techniques."

"You have a technique?" Katherine snorted.

"Of course I do."

"What about our no drinking pact?" Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "I don't want to be the guilty party."

"They're free drinks, Bon that changes things." Caroline threw them a winning smile. "So are you in?"

* * *

Elijah had been looking at Katherine and her friends for the past half hour and he could tell that they were drunk, extremely drunk. They had been doing tequila shots with the sleazy looking guys nonstop, even the sensible girl from the group looked a bit wasted.

It was kind of hard not to notice them, the others surely did. Caroline was sitting in a stool with her legs crossed and taking nonstop pictures. The dark hair girl was flirting with one of the guys, and Katherine well, it was hard not to notice Katherine.

She was doing a sexy, little dance for her little group and for the first time Elijah noticed the ridiculous, short little dress that she was wearing. He could see her breasts peeking out slightly as her dress lowered dangerously and her cute, dancing bottom seemed to almost hypnotize him.

Elijah felt himself growing hard. It was hard not to.

"Elijah! Elijah!" Elena said impatiently as she touched his arm. "Will you pay attention? You haven't listen to a word I've said-is that your assistant dancing?"

"Yes." He said as he stood up. "I'm afraid we need to cut our date short, Elena."

"Why?"

"I obviously need to take Katherine home." Elijah said. "She and her friends are not in the most stable condition."

"They can take a taxi." Elena argued. "Honestly, Elijah they are not children, they can take care of themselves."

When it was clear that he wasn't going to change his mind, Elena stood up abruptly. "Do whatever you want."

Elijah approached the bar. "Katerina? Are you all right?"

"I'm great! She said. "I'm awesome! I'm Katherine fucking Pierce!"

"Yes, I can see that. Would you mind lowering your voice?"

"Hey guys this is my boss, Elijah." Katherine kissed his cheek dramatically. "Isn't he marvelous?"

Elijah grasped her wrist firmly. "I think we need to go home, Katerina. I think I need to take all of you home."

"Caroline and I can take a taxi." Bonnie blushed, she looked the least drunk. "We can take Katherine home with us."

Elijah shook his head. The last thing he wanted was for something to happen to Katherine. She was already flirting with everyone, the last thing he needed was for her to take off her dress. He put a reassuring hand on Katherine's shoulder as he led her away. "That's all right, I'll take care of Katherine."

-End of Chapter Eight-


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"Katherine!" Elijah tried to be patient, but it was hard when Katherine was giggling like a maniac and trying to spin him around as if they were taking ballroom dance lessons. Elena had quickly left in her own car and even though Elijah usually took his own car everywhere he had decided to take a taxi to the restaurant to avoid traffic. Clearly, that had been a bad move. "Will you start acting like a halfway coherent person?"

But he knew it was stupid to start arguing with a woman who was clearly drunk. Katherine ignored him as she let looked around dazed by the lights of the buildings. "New York is so pretty . . . it looks like Disneyland, but without Mickey. Have you ever been to Disneyland?"

"No," he snapped as he practically pushed Katherine inside the first taxi he saw. "And neither have you."

"Course I have." She mumbled as she laid her head in Elijah's lap, momentarily falling asleep.

The taxi driver, apparently amused by the spectacle the two of them were making said. "Where too sir?"

He rattled off Katherine's address, thankful that at least Katherine had fallen asleep and was not making a racket. It was obvious that this woman couldn't control her alcohol intake. Elijah noticed that the taxi driver was ignoring the road and with leering eyes was staring at the back seat.

Elijah doubted that he was looking at him, so he looked back towards Katherine and his eyes almost bugged out. Katherine's head was still resting on his lap, but he hadn't noticed that her short black dress had been pulled up and was now giving the two men of the taxi a rather rare view.

She was wearing the tiniest, laciest, and dare he say sexiest pair of black panties (if you could call them panties) that Elijah had ever seen in a woman. The black panties were now showing her round, fleshy bottom that the cab driver had become so interested in.

"Eyes on the road." Elijah snapped. "I really don't want to get into an accident tonight."

When the driver turned back towards the road, Elijah hastily pulled back down Katherine's dress as well as resting a hand gently over her bottom as if trying to say to the driver_, she's_ _mine._

Of course Katherine wasn't really his. They weren't even friends, but that did not mean that Elijah was just going to sit around and watch as other men leered at her. Besides at some point his and Katherine's relationship had been sexual and right now in her current state he felt protective towards her.

Elijah felt himself growing hard. He shook his head and tried to concentrate on unhappier thoughts while at the same time trying to ignore the fact that his hand was resting on Katherine's bottom.

Even through the black dress, Elijah could feel the roundness and the soft skin. He had always been more of an ass man.

"We're here." The driver said as Elijah paid him. He easily managed to get Katherine out of the car. In her state she was more of a limp doll. He walked towards Katherine's apartment until he realize that he didn't have a key. "Katherine, I need a key."

"Mat." She murmured, she was practically slumping against his shoulder.

Elijah reached down and pulled out the spare key from under the mat. Elijah opened the door and faced Katherine. "Come in."

Katherine dazedly pushed back her dark hair from her face, looking peppier than she had been at the cab. She took off her heels in the middle of the hallway and then turned to face Elijah giving him a sultry look. "Let's party. I think I have a bottle of wine here."

"No," Elijah shook his head firmly as he closed the cabinet door that Katherine was trying to open. "Bed. Now."

Katherine rolled her eyes as she let herself be pulled away by Elijah. "You are so boring. You used to be the life of the party. Now you're the boring one. I'm going to go watch TV."

Elijah gave a frustrated sigh as he put Katherine over his shoulder and rested his hand on her lower back and took her towards her room with Katherine being amused at the whole scenario.

Thankfully, Katherine's bedroom was organized and actually in a decent state. He plopped Katherine on the bed and started opening drawers. "Where do you keep your pajamas?"

Katherine shrugged. "I don't wear pajamas, I sleep naked."

Elijah felt himself blush. "Um . . . what?"

Katherine smiled. "Kidding. Second drawer or was it third? I don't remember."

"Of course you don't." he murmured.

Katherine suddenly pulled up her flimsy, black dress over her head. "Strip!"

Elijah felt as if he was going to faint or at the very least fall over. His pants felt unusually uncomfortable and a bulge was already forming in his pants. Katerina Piece was completely naked, except for the pair of black panties.

Her breasts weren't covered by a bra and she didn't seem to care. She jumped on her knees on the bed, her naked breasts bouncing along with her. She smiled at him innocently. "Come play with me."

Elijah just stood stiff in his place.

Katherine rolled her eyes and before Elijah could stop her, Katherine wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, surprising him.

_You have a fiancée Elijah, _Elijah scolded himself_, you're engaged to Elena, you and Katherine already made a mess out of things._

Elijah pulled back and shook his head. "Katherine, we can't-"

Katherine looked at him with hurt and anger. "You hurt me, Elijah again." She sniffed. "First you act like you care then you turn away and leave me for someone prettier and I hate that. I hate seeing you with Elena, I hate that she gets to kiss you. Why do you always hurt me, Elijah?"

Elijah stared at her awkwardly and said softly. "I never meant to hurt you."

"Could have fooled me." Katherine scoffed as she curled into ball, not bothering to put on her pajamas and instantly falling asleep.

Elijah waited for a few seconds before he kissed her forehead. He knew very well what Katherine was so upset about. She was still mad about high school. He kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry."

-End of Chapter Nine-


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Katherine woke up slowly, then sun hurt her eyes, her body ache, and she had the desire to throw up. She had a hangover, that part was clear. She forced herself to sit up even though what she most wanted to do was crawl into a hole and die.

Katherine looked up and realize that she was completely naked, except for the trashy underwear that Caroline had conned her to wear. Her dress was on the floor, but her shoes were nowhere in sight.

She rummage a hand through her messy hair. "What the hell-"

She tried to remember what happened, but everything was a complete blur to her and only seemed to raise more questions. The only thing she remembered was going to Bonnie's birthday dinner at the palace and drinking like a bunch of lunatics.

But after that everything was a complete, ugly blur. How had she gotten home? Who had taken off her dress? More importantly what had she done?

Feelings of shame and annoyance spread to whole body as she wobbled towards the kitchen. Her cell phone was there along with her heels, well that solved a few questions. Katherine hastily dialed Caroline's number while preparing herself a cup of coffee.

After the third ring, Caroline grumbled a bleary. "Hello?"

"Caroline, why aren't you at work?"

"Me? Why aren't you? Ow, and don't shout Kat I already have a bad headache." Caroline groaned. "So I'm guessing neither of us went to work today, I woke up around six and then managed to call in sick before I passed out again."

Katherine closed her eyes as she poured herself a cup of coffee. The strong smell seemed to wake her up. "I think I messed up. Bad. Can you remember what happened last night? To me, at least? Who took me home?"

Caroline didn't speak for a moment and Katherine knew it was bad. "Kat, I was drunk, but you were beyond drunk."

Katherine rubbed her temples. "I figured as much. Just spit it out, Caroline. I can take it."

"Elijah."

"Yeah, I know Elijah is going to kill me for missing work. But who took me home?"

"Elijah." Caroline said exasperated. "That's what I want to tell you, Katherine. Elijah was the one who took you home."

Katherine hung up without another word and sunk to her knees. She lowered her head and hugged her knees. She was so embarrassed, she could have died. Why did she always have to be a mess when Elijah was involved? It was so humiliating.

After a moment of self-pity she stumbled back into her room. She noticed a slip of paper that she hadn't noticed in her vanity before. She opened it and much to her horror there was a note from Elijah-_You don't have to come in tomorrow, :) _

Smiley face? Katherine shut her eyes. Smiley face. He couldn't believe that straight laced Elijah had added a smiley face and he had let her miss a day of work.

Yep, she was totally fired.

She looked at the clock it was almost one' clock in the afternoon. She would have to wait a few more hours until Elijah came home so that she could apologize. It wasn't something that Katherine was looking forward too.

* * *

Elena and Elijah were kissing on Elijah's couch in his penthouse later that night. Elijah had taken off his coat and his shirt and was only wearing pants. Elijah fondled Elena's breasts as Elena kissed his neck and let out a little moan.

Elijah was unhooking her bra when the doorbell rang.

"Don't answer," Elena said in a breathy tone.

"It might be someone important." Elijah murmured as he kissed her cheek. "It won't take long."

Elena nodded as she stood up, she threw him a flirty smirk. "I'll wait for you in your bedroom."

Elijah didn't even bother putting on a shirt as he answered the door. He looked back startled. "Katerina?"

Katherine didn't bother correcting him this time. She was wearing a wool skirt, a cardigan, and boots. Her hair was a soggy brown mess and she was completely wet from the rain. She noticed that Elijah was half naked. She gaped. "Oh, you're busy, I'll come back later."

"Katerina," he mumbled, but Katherine had already turned around to leave. "Wait-"

"Really, Elijah this can wait." She flushed as she walked down the stairs and Elijah followed her down the stairs until they reached the lobby of the apartment building.

Elijah grasped her wrist and turned her around. "Katerina, wait-"

"Ok, just answer me this Elijah. What happened last night?" she fumbled.

Elijah hesitated. "Well, you got drunk, I took you home, you kind of took off your dress, and then you kissed me." Katherine flushed even redder as she buried her face in her hands. "Really, Katherine it was no big deal."

"I kissed you and I stripped for you?" Katherine raised an eyebrow. "How is that not a big deal, Elijah? I'm so embarrassed."

"There's nothing for you to be embarrassed about." He insisted.

Katherine shook her head, but no words came out. "Let's just not talk about it anymore, please? You don't mention it and I won't mention, ok?"

Elijah nodded. "All right." He noticed that she was shivering. "You're cold. I have an umbrella upstairs, or can I hail you a taxi?"

"No," she eyed his naked chest. "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold and you're probably busy with Elena. I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Mikaelson."

_So we're back to Mr. Mikaelson,_ "All right, Miss Pierce."

Katherine turned around and was about to leave when, Elijah suddenly reached forward and squeezed her hand. "Katherine . . . I'm sorry . . . for everything."

-End of Chapter Ten-


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

_Flashback_

"Come on, Elijah! Leave the chick alone!" Elijah's buddy, Tyler Lockwood slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "She's is bumming me out, come on the girls have just started their cheerleading practice!"

Elijah didn't respond. Katherine had found out the debt that he had made with Tyler. If he went out with the shy freshman Katherine Pierce and had sex with her then Tyler would give Elijah two tickets to a concert that he really wanted to see, but were sold out.

At first Elijah didn't think it was a big deal. After all she was just a stupid freshman. But after the first few weeks of "dating" he could feel the guilt settling into the pit of his stomach. Katherine was such a sweetheart.

Hurting her was like hurting Bambi practically.

But like the asshole he could be he had continued dating her and eventually slept with her and now she had found out and Elijah had just brushed her off.

Elijah was wondering why this was bothering him, he had done worse to other girls, but this just felt different somehow. Katherine had been looking at him with that pleading in her eyes. Hoping it wasn't true and Elijah had just crushed her.

Elijah looked over his shoulder. She was still standing where he had left her. Her body was trembling and Elijah could tell that she was crying by the way that her body was trembling and her face was buried in her hands.

He gulped.

"Elijah, come on," Tyler said annoyed. "We're not just going to stand here all day."

"Coming."

_End of Flashback._

* * *

She had looked so ashamed. So embarrassed. So awkward. As if she was afraid of what Elijah was thinking of her. It didn't suit her.

Elijah thought as he walked back to his apartment, after he and Katherine had parted ways they both had avoided each other, but after Katherine became his assistant he started noticing that she was different.

She was more hostile, stubborn, and sassy.

Not at all the sweet, innocent, naïve girl that Elijah had fooled in high school.

But today, right now when she had come to apologize Elijah saw a glimpse of little Katerina that had been hidden inside Katherine and Elijah didn't know if that was bad or good. They both had changed since high school and things weren't as easy as they had been back then. They couldn't run away.

_I'm sorry,_ the words had slipped out before he could clearly think about it. But he didn't regret them. It was strange how relief he felt actually, as if he had wanted to get that out of his chest for a long time. Katherine hadn't even face him, she had just simply nodded quietly and slipped out of the apartment building as fast as she could.

Elijah couldn't believe that she had actually come all the way to his apartment in the middle of the pouring rain. She had looked like a drenched cat.

Elijah wondered if she even knew what he had been apologizing for, but Elijah guessed she did. Katherine was a smart girl.

When he reached his room, he found Elena dressed in lingerie and wearing one of his shirts and was flipping through a magazine. "What took you so long?" she asked.

Elijah didn't answer as he handed her back her clothes that she perched against a chair. "I'm sorry, this isn't going to work. You need to leave."

"Huh?" Elena looked confused. "Why?"

"It's just," he couldn't think of a reason. He just didn't want to see Elena right now. "I'm tired and I really need you to leave. I'm not going to be good company right now."

Elena waited for a few minutes, when it was clear that Elijah wasn't going to back off, she started putting on her clothes. "Fine. Have it your way." Without even bothering to look at him, Elena closed the door with a slam.

Elijah rummaged a hand through his dark hair. What was wrong with him? What kind of guy asked his future wife to leave like that? Elena quickly left his mind as he pulled out a small box from under his bed.

It contained mostly stuff from high school, his cap and gown, his diploma, his medals, and his yearbook. He flipped open to the freshman side until he reached Katherine's picture.

"Damn, she looks so young." He murmured. Katherine's curls were all over the place and she had that wide eyed innocent look that caused many people to take advantage off. Including him.

He closed the book with a thump. He wondered in Katherine would quit her job. He didn't want her to quit not only because he would have a hard time finding an assistant that he actually liked, but because he would miss seeing her every day. As annoying as her sass and moodiness was sometimes, it still made him laugh from time to time.

"I hope she doesn't leave." Elijah murmured. He was used to seeing her every day.

Elijah also remembered that he didn't tell Katherine that she had hinted that she was in love with him. Usually he would tease her about it, but she had looked so scared and panicked about how he would react that he didn't want to traumatize her even more.

Besides he liked the fact that Katherine had told him something she wouldn't have otherwise. Because as the saying goes: drunks always tell the truth.

-End of Chapter Eleven-

Thank you for your reviews!


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

_Flashback_

The high school stadium was filled with newly graduates, parents, and siblings. The diploma felt heavy in Elijah's hands. He couldn't believe that he had graduated. That he had actually graduated from high school.

He was free now and ready to start college.

Still, he looked around the crowded stadium. He was going to miss this place, the football games, the parties, his friends, maybe even his classes.

His parents had come of course, boasting to everyone that they could find that their son had graduated with honors and had been valedictorian.

"Hey, man party as my house ok?" Tyler said as he patted Elijah on the back.

"Sure thing." He said. He turned around and towards the far corner of the stadium he saw Katherine, she was standing there with her parents and a girl he briefly remembered from his Calculus class. He knew that Katherine was an only child so the girl was probably her cousin or something.

Elijah didn't know what made him do it, but he suddenly found himself walking towards her, Katherine noticed and there was an obvious panicked looked on her face. She whispered something to her mom and then started walking towards the opposite direction.

She looked different, Elijah couldn't help but noticed, though he hadn't spoken to her in months. Her chocolate brown curls were cut into a short bob that didn't suit her heart shaped face and she was taller and skinnier too.

But in some ways she looked frailer.

She had lost that doe eye look on her face and her eyes were cold and dark. She paused, obviously annoyed that he was following her. "What?"

"Nothing." He took a step back. "I graduated." He blurted out stupidly.

Katherine raised an eyebrow she looked at his cap. "Yeah, I noticed. Bye."

"Wait," Elijah grasped her wrist. "Don't leave mad."

"Do you honestly expect me to be happy?" she scowled at him. "After everything you did, do you honestly expect a congratulatory hug?"

"I expect something." He said childishly.

Katherine shook her head. "You haven't changed. You're still the immature, selfish jerk I know you are."

_End of Flashback._

* * *

"He probably thinks I'm an alcoholic or something." Katherine sipped her chamomile tea that Bonnie had prepared for her and the only thing that seemed to cure her pounding headache and her not so pure thoughts about what had happened last night.

She shut her eyes tightly trying as hard as she could to remember what happened, but everything was a complete blur.

"Or at the very least in need of some serious therapy." Caroline offered not so helpfully.

"Caroline." Bonnie shook her head.

Caroline bit her lip. "Sorry. Maybe the tea will help regain some of your memories."

Katherine put down her cup of tea. "Well, unless it's a magic tea, it surely doesn't seem to be helping." She looked outside and noticed that it was still raining. She could still feel her wet clothes. After she had tried and apologize to Elijah (who had been clearly about to have sex with she-who-shall-not-be-named) Katherine had raced to Caroline and Bonnie's apartment. The two of them shared an apartment and were roommates, Bonnie was a nurse so she had the type of clear head that Katherine needed in situations such as these.

Her hand still a bit warm from when Elijah had grabbed her hand and apologized, he had also said for everything which included high school. A small smile twitched on her lips. He was sorry, that was unexpected.

Katherine sip another bit of tea and then frowned. Wait, she was starting to remember some things. Suddenly, the whole image of her stripping in front of him became clear, she remembered the sloppy kiss, and she had actually told him that she was jealous of Elena because she got to kiss him!

Oh, crap.

"Just kill me already." She whimpered as she buried her face in her hands.

Caroline and Bonnie exchanged glances. "What did you do?"

"I think the better question is, what didn't I do?" she groaned. "I practically told him, I was in love with him."

"Well, he's cute." Bonnie admitted weakly.

"He's my boss," she spat. "And he's about to get married and things are already bad enough. Hell, they had been bad enough since high school."

Caroline was obviously confused. "What happened in high school?"

Katherine flushed. She had never told anyone about the "bet" before. It was just too shameful and she didn't want the pity party.

Bonnie leaned forward and squeezed her hand. "You don't have to tell us, if you don't want to."

"But if you want to, we'll listen." Caroline quipped.

Katherine looked from Bonnie to Caroline. These girls were her two best friends. "Elijah and I went to the same high school and when he was a senior and when I was a freshman, he made a bet with some other idiot that he will be able to date and sleep with me. He won."

"Was . . . the sex any good?"

"Caroline!" Bonnie scolded, she threw her an apologetic look. "Sorry, that little jerk."

"It's ok. It was mostly painful. First time."

"You lose your V-card to him?"

Bonnie and Katherine glared.

"Sorry, I'll shut up now."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "How could you still work for him?"

Katherine shrugged as she looked at her cold tea. "I didn't go to college, he was offering me a good salary, and we put whatever we had in high school behind us." She smiled. "He apologized, though today after all these years he finally apologized."

Neither girl said anything for a moment, until Carolina addressed the question. "Are you still in love with him, Kat?"

Katherine shook her head. "No, I can't . . . he hurt me once, I can't let him do that to me again. I can't fall in love with Elijah again. I can't."

-End of Chapter Twelve-


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

"_Mr. Mikaelson, you need to sign here." Katherine told Elijah as she placed a contract over her desk and handed him a pen. "It is to release the new Blu ray DVD player overseas."_

_Elijah took the pen from her. "Where do I need to sign, Katerina?"_

"_It's Katherine." Katherine huffed as she pointed to the line at the edge of the contract. "And here."_

_Elijah did his quick, elegant signature before handing her the pen. "Is this it?"_

_She nodded as she took the pen, but neither of them moved. They just stared at each other without saying a word. He suddenly leaned forward and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist._

_His kisses felt soft against her lips and she could feel herself getting flushed. She tried pulling away, but Elijah's grip around her waist was firm. "Elijah, we can't." she murmured._

"_Why not?" he murmured back as he pressed her against the office wall and started kissing her neck. He removed her blouse in one quick swipe exposing her dark purple bra. He traced an index finger around her left breast before cupping it gently, his index finger tracing teasingly around the covered nipple._

_Katherine bit her lip to hold in a moan. "Elijah, we can't-" _

"_Can't we?" he said in a teasing voice as he hiked up her skirt, his hand reaching towards her panties, his fingers started playing with her swelling clit as he caressed it while he kissed her._

"_Elijah," Katherine murmured as her own finger started unbuttoning his shirt._

"Beep. Beep."

Katherine's eyes flew wide open when she heard her alarms clock ring, but for once she was actually wide awake. She sat up quickly as she looked around, trying to calm down her beating heart.

"It's a dream, Katherine." She reassured herself. "It's just a dream."

Though most people (like Caroline, for example) dreamt about normal things like ponies and rainbows, and being rich and famous, they surely didn't dream about having sex with their boss.

Especially since she had already humiliated herself in front of said boss, more times than she could count.

Katherine washed her face with cool water trying to get the dream out of her head. It just felt so real as if she and Elijah had actually been there together in his office. She frowned at her reflection and scolded herself for overthinking.

It was just a stupid dream. A stupid, creepy dream, but a dream all the same. She had already made the mistake of sleeping with Elijah once. She was not going to make the same mistake again.

Katherine Pierce was not stupid.

* * *

"Katherine."

Katherine turned around and saw Stefan smiling at her with that cute puppy dog adorableness that would make any girl with half a brain smile. Too bad Katherine wasn't one of them. The streets were crowded, but she managed to make a space so that Stefan could walk next to her. They hadn't really talked since Katherine had rejected him and to be honest she kind of had been avoiding him, but it didn't seem like Stefan was holding a grudge. "Hi, Stefan." She said as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Hi, how's your knee?" he asked pointing to her knee that was half healed already. "You're here, early."

"Oh, it's fine. And well, I guess I should be early every once in a while." She chuckled nervously, not wanting to admit the whole Bonnie birthday dinner fiasco and the fact that she was trying to play it off as if she were an innocent goody goody the minute Elijah walked through the door.

Awkward silence.

Katherine hated these awkward silences, it made Katherine feel powerless and besides she had always had a good relationship with Stefan.

"Katherine, are you ok?" he raised an eyebrow. "You're not still worrying about telling me no on the dinner date, are you? Because it's ok, I'm fine." He paused. "We are still friends right?"

"Of course we're still friends!" she blurted. "Why don't you want to be?"

"No, I do." He shrugged. "It's just you've been acting distant lately, I thought I'd scare you off."

"Believe me it wasn't you," It was the guy we both work for. "But we're still best friends for life, don't worry, Salvatore."

Stefan smiled as they neared the building. "Good, I'm going to grab a cup coffee, I'll see you later."

"Bye." Katherine started checking her text messages as she entered the elevator. She was just responding back to a text from Bonnie when a voice said. "It's not wise to be looking down while walking."

Katherine almost jumped half a mile in the tiny cramped, elevator even startling Elijah who Katherine had no idea that he was there in the first place. "It was a joke, Katherine."

"I know it was." She tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice. "You just scared me that's all."

A smile spread on Elijah's face as he leaned back against the elevator door. "It wasn't my intention. How did you sleep?"

Katherine blushed remembering the dream. "I slept just fine. It's none of your business."

The joking allure left Elijah's face as the elevator's doors clicked open. "I was just asking a simple question, Katerina. No need to get riled up. I'm going to need you to set an appointment with Tom Reynolds all right?"

"Sure." She said as she watched Elijah's retreating back, grateful that he wasn't giving her a hard time. "Mr. Mikaelson. . .thank you."

Elijah didn't turn around, he simply gave one quick nod of his head as he walked to his office and closed the door. Caroline who had been pretending badly not to be staring at them beamed at Katherine. "That went ok, right?"

Thoughts to last night's dream, how she and Elijah had undressed themselves in his office entered her mind. "Believe me, ok is not the word I would use."

* * *

Around noon Katherine decided to take her lunch break while leaving Caroline to man the phones and visitors. She grabbed her salad tucked under her desk. "I'll see you in half an hour and then-"

She didn't even get to finish because at that precise moment Elena came storming in like a hurricane, it was obvious that she had been crying. She didn't even bother greeting them she just stormed into Elijah's office ignoring Caroline's pleas to let Elijah know.

"He's going to be pissed." She bit her lip.

Within minutes the shouting began.

"You're being so cold and heartless-"

"-You're being irrational-"

"All you do is work, work! When are you-"

"All this for an extravagant wedding, I told you I wanted something small-"

"Kicking me out of your house in the middle of the night-"

"Care, something tells me you aren't Elijah's biggest problem right now."

Caroline raised an eyebrow. "Trouble in paradise, huh?" she noticed the smile on Katherine's face. "Why are you so happy? You got all smiley all of a sudden."

"Me?" Katherine shook her head. "No, I'm not happy, well I mean I am, but just for my break. I'm really, um, excited for lunch."

-End of Chapter Thirteen-


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

"Elijah, do you love me?"

The question caught Elijah off guard, not only because Elena sounded usually vulnerable, but because that was the last thing Elijah thought Elena would say. They had been arguing for the past five minutes about their relationship, of the lack of their relationship.

Elijah couldn't think of a single reason why he had had wanted to marry her in the first place.

"I asked you a question."

Elijah forced himself to look up at Elena. "Yes, I do love you." He said in a voice that sounded less than convincing. "I am marrying you, am I not?"

"Are you?" Elena doubted. "Because you don't really seem like you are."

"I am. Honest." He said. It would be much more difficult to cancel the wedding at this point and he knew that both he and Elena didn't want to discuss this with their parents. The Gilberts and the Mikaelsons would probably die of embarrassment. They were both picture perfect families and they expected their children to be picture perfect as well.

Elena didn't look convince. "I don't know."

"What can I do to prove it to you?" Elijah glance at the clock. He had a meeting in twenty minutes and he didn't want to deal with Elena's insecurities.

"Let's get married." Elena said suddenly. "In two weeks."

That startled Elijah he took his eyes off the clock. "In two weeks? But how are we-"

"I'll manage." Elena said sharply. "So are we getting married?"

Elijah didn't speak for a moment. He thought he had months to get married. Not weeks. "Elijah?" Elena's voice quivered a bit.

"We are." He finally said. "We're getting married in two weeks."

* * *

Katherine was just returning from her lunch, trying to wipe the smile still on her face when she entered the elevator. She was surprise when she saw Elijah in the elevator. But this time she didn't jump like a scared Chihuahua. "Mr. Mikaelson."

Elijah took a sip of his coffee. "Katerina."

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "I won't even bother." They didn't speak for a few seconds. "I thought you had a meeting."

"Miranda called at the last minute and canceled." He raised his coffee cup. "I went to get some coffee since you were on your lunch break."

"Caroline could have gotten that for you."

"Caroline over sugars. Her coffee tastes like overly sweet chocolate milk sometimes."

Katherine laughed. "That's Caroline."

The elevator shook suddenly and the light inside of the elevator went off, before the elevator just stood. Katherine frowned. "That's weird." She started pushing the buttons.

"Don't push them!" Elijah snapped. "Do you want to die?"

"I'm just trying to get the damn doors open."

"Then use this one for emergency." Elijah said as he pushed a bright red button that was used to call for help. He pushed it, but nothing happened. "It's not working."

"It's probably stuck. It's fine, it will probably be working again in a few seconds-"

"No, it's not fine, Katerina!" Elijah snarled as he pressed his back against the wall and closed his eyes forcing himself to keep his cool. He was acting hysterical, but he hated being in small, cramped spaces, it made him feel suffocated especially if there were no windows.

Katherine noticed this and frowned "Are you ok, no offense, but you're looking kind of gray."

"I don't like small spaces." Elijah said in a tight voice as he loosen his tie. "Please don't stand too close to me."

"I won't." She said. "Are you claustrophobic?"

Why wouldn't she stopped talking? "A little."

Katherine didn't say anything. It felt weird seeing cool and composed Elijah freaking out.

"I can't breathe." He hissed. "I need to get out of here!"

"Elijah, Elijah you'ok." Katherine whispered as she squeezed his hand. "You're ok. You're safe. I'm right here. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I'm right here."

"You're right here, Katerina." He murmured.

Katherine nodded. "That's right, I'm right here. Think happy thoughts."

Happy thoughts.

_Flashback_

"_Has anyone else called for the assistant position, Miss Forbes?" Elijah asked Caroline. It had been two weeks since he had fired his last assistant and he still hadn't gotten a new one. He liked Caroline, but she got distracted too easily. Elijah had seen various other girls that had applied for the job but he didn't like them mostly because they were incompetent and too_ _giggly._

"_Just one." Caroline looked nervous. "My friend, Katherine Pierce and just between us she really needs this job."_

"_I can't make any promises. Please send her in." he didn't know why, but the name sounded familiar._

_Seconds later a tall brunette with a black pencil skirt and a dark blue blouse appeared. She looked equally startled to see him. "Elijah?" she held back a breath. "When Caroline said Mikaelson I didn't think-"_

"_Well, it's me." Elijah interrupted. "Have a seat . . . Miss Pierce. It's nice to see you again."_

_End of Flashback_

The elevator gave a little shake and the light turned on. Katherine rubbed his arm gently. "See, it's working again. We're going to be fine."

Elijah nodded, trying to ignore the knot in his stomach and trying to calm down his beating heart. The elevator doors opened releasing them to the first floor.

Standing in front of them was Stefan and a dark blond man that Elijah didn't recognize. Stefan frowned. "Are you guys, ok? The elevator didn't come down for a while."

"It got jammed. You better use the other one." Katherine explained as she released her grip from Elijah's arm to stare at the man next to Stefan. She recognize the blond hair and the deep blue eyes. "Seth?"

Seth smiled. "I was hoping you remembered, it's been a long time, kitty kat."

-End of Chapter Fourteen-

Thanks for your reviews! Don't worry, Elijah will get a taste of his own medicine, soon.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

Kitty kat? Elijah stared perplexed at the blond hair, blue eyed man in front of him, who greeted Katherine with such informality. Apparently, he could call her Kitty kat (which to Elijah sounded like a stripper's name) but he couldn't call her Katerina, her actual name.

Which was worse, because Katherine actually seemed to like it.

She ignored Elijah, even though he was her boss and five minutes ago his life coach, to hug Seth. "Seth, I almost didn't recognize you."

"Me neither." Seth laughed as he pushed back a curl. "You're still curly top though." he turned to Stefan. "That's what I used to call her when we were kids."

Stefan nodded. "How do you two know each other?"

"We were childhood friends growing up, inseparable during first and second grade." Seth explained. "Then I move to Maine and well, recently I just moved back. I live across the hall from Stefan, we were having lunch and I just came to say goodbye."

Elijah cleared his throat. "Miss Pierce, we do have a job."

"Right," Katherine kissed Seth's cheek. "I'll see you later. It was nice seeing you again Seth."

"Likewise. Listen, are you busy later? We can go grab dinner, catch up and I can actually learn something from you other than your love for Elmo."

Elijah felt a pang of annoyance.

Katherine nodded, feeling awkward in front of Stefan and Elijah. "Sure, that would be great. Here's my number."

A couple of minutes later, Elijah and Katherine were back in the spare elevator that was actually working. As they waited to reach the top floor, Elijah turned to her. "Miss Pierce, please keep your personal life to yourself, I really have no desire to hear about your social life."

Katherine's jaw tightened. "I'm sorry, Mr. Mikaelson but he was my childhood friend and I haven't seen him in a long time."

Elijah straightened his suit. "Yes, I understand, what I'm trying to say is that I didn't appreciate the fact that you were flaunting yourself all over him."

Katherine raised an eyebrow, but bit back her tongue as the elevator doors clicked open. "Fine, then next time have someone else hold your hand in an elevator."

* * *

"Sorry, I'm late." Katherine pushed back her dark curls from her face. She was still wearing her skirt and jacket combo. "My boss was being an ass."

In fact it seemed that today of all days, Elijah had been doing every little thing possible to make her work past her usual hours. He kept asking for refills for coffee, to recheck appointments, to make even more copies of a paper than they didn't even need.

Katherine practically had to pull herself away. She had no idea, why he was suddenly being so clingy. Usually he avoided her.

"Nonsense, you look lovely." Seth replied as they entered the restaurant. "Is your boss always like that? He seemed kind of . . . uptight."

"It's his personality. Controlling. Demanding. But they money is good, so that's a plus." A waitress led them to a small table by the window and handed them menus. "But enough about work, I want to know about you Mr. Seth Collins, what have you've been up too?"

Seth smiled bashfully. "Not much, my life is kind of boring."

"I don't believe that." Katherine replied. "You were always adventuress, you were the one who pushed my bike off the hill. While I was still on it."

Seth flushed. "Yeah, and you got stitches, I think you even cried every time you saw me for some time."

"Should I be scared that you're going to hurt me right now?"

Seth leaned forward and gently rubbed her hand with his index finger. "Maybe." He turned to the waiter that had just appeared. "Can you bring us some red wine, we're celebrating."

The waiter nodded. "Of course."

"Well, if you want the whole boring story, I graduated from Harvard Law and currently I got a job in the city. I missed New York. How about you?"

"Well, unfortunately not something as cookie cutter as that." The waiter poured each of them a glass of wine. "I graduated high school, took a year off from college and eventually never went back. My friend Caroline got me a job as an assistant in Mikaelson & Co. But I'm doing very well." _Despite a few, very embarrassing secrets._

"Well, I'm glad." He raised his glass of wine. "To old friends."

Katherine clicked her glass against his. "To friends."

* * *

Elijah arrived at his own apartment around eight, early in his opinion despite doing every possible thing to make Katherine late. He knew he was acting like a child, but he didn't want Katherine going out with Seth. He didn't even like the way that she smiled at him. Katherine never gave him that smile.

His phone rang. He looked at caller ID. His Mother. Lovely. "Mother."

"Elijah," Esther said curtly. "I just got off the phone with Elena. She informed me that you're moving the wedding in two weeks, though she wouldn't tell me why. Why did she get that ridiculous idea? I still haven't found my dress yet."

Elijah closed his eyes. "You'll find a dress, mother and you know Elena, she's impatient."

"You don't sound very happy."

"I don't assume most men are happy to get tied down."

"That is true, but you have never been a womanizer." Esther paused. "Is something bothering you? You seem distracted."

He shook his head. "No, I'm fine. Just perfect."

* * *

"Thank you for walking me to my apartment," Katherine said as Seth opened the door. "You didn't have too."

"I wanted to," he said as he stood in the doorway.

"Come in."

"Oh, no thanks I have work in the morning and I suspect you do too. Wouldn't want another strike with your boss." Seth laughed.

Katherine took a deep breath. "Believe me I don't need any more strikes. Thanks for dinner, Seth."

Seth nodded. "You're welcome. Good night."

"Good night." Katherine closed the door and walked towards her bedroom. She laid on her bed. She had actually had fun on her dinner date with Seth even as friends. She closed her eyes, maybe she should move on from that silly hold she had on Elijah. He was getting married and it was obvious that he didn't care for her.

Maybe she should move on with Seth.

-End of Chapter Fifteen-


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

"Oh, come on, Kat, you're not seriously going to keep me guessing are you?" Caroline whined to her best friend a few days later at work. "What happened between you and what's his name Sam?"

"Seth," Katherine corrected as she put down the phone. "And I already told you, nothing happened, Caroline."

Caroline pouted. "Come on, this is the first date you've been too in years, you can't blame me for being a little excited."

"This is not the first date I've been to in years!" she protested.

"Excuse me, what I meant is with someone with actual potential." Caroline scoffed as she wrinkled her nose. "I wouldn't even cross the streets with some of the jerks you've gone out with in the past two years."

Katherine bit her lip. She really didn't have a defense against that. She had made a lot of bad options when it came to guys. She remembered that guy from the coffee shop, James her former neighbor who had actually made her pay for dinner, along with a bunch of losers that Katherine would rather forget about.

"How do you know him again?" Caroline said as she looked over her shoulder. Yep, Elijah's door was still close. Katherine had asked Caroline not to mention the whole "date" thing because Elijah got a little bit tense when he heard the word to say the least.

"He was a childhood friend." Katherine explained. "We were friends when we were little, but after he and his family moved we parted ways, that's all."

Caroline opened her mouth to argue when the elevator doors clicked open. Elena appeared looking happier than she had been last time. She was dressed in a black and white dress and white high heels and carrying a bring pink shopping bag. She stopped in between Caroline and Katherine's desks and actually smiled. "Hello girls."

"Hello." The shock was eveident on Caroline's tone of voice.

Katherine cleared her throat, her hand already on the phone. "Should I call, Elijah, Miss Gilbert?"

Elena shook her head. "I don't want to bother him, besides I'm already late. I just came for a quick errand." She dug into the pink bag and pulled out two perfectly decorated invitations in glossy white paper. "Wedding invitations. Elijah insited that we invite. . .the help."

Katherine glared at her.

Caroline choked on a laugh.

"Thanks." Katherine replied as she stuffed the invitation not to gently inside her desk. "We appreciated it."

If Elena showed any discomfort about the tense atmosphere in the office, she didn't show it. She nodded. "Hope to see you there, it's next Saturday." Witthout another word she walked back towards the elevator.

"I can't believe she called us the help." Caroline giggled after Elena had gone. "Does it look like we're wearing aprons and looking after the children?"

Katherine shrugged. "People like Elena never leave their plastic bubble of fake reality for long."

Caroline looked at the invitation. "Still the invitations are pretty, don't you think, Kat?"

Katherine snapped her head to the side, remembering the crumbled invitation she had stuffed inside her desk. It was official, Elijah was going to get married.

* * *

"The Mikaelson brand Mp3 and radios have been delivered to every Winchester store in 47 states, the shipping is behind in Maine, Rhode Island, and Hawaii, but they've assured me that it will be resolve my tomorrow morning." Katherine looked up and saw that Elijah seemed more concentrated on stabbing a paper with a pen. "Mr. Mikaelson will that be all?" she usually didn't mind staying overtime, but when Elijah at least paid attention to her,

Elijah locked his dark brown eyes on her. "I'm sorry, Miss Pierce am I keeping you away from another date? Perhaps I should offer Seth a job since you two can't live without each other apparently."

Katherine placed the tablet on her lap. "This has nothing to do with Seth and my personal life is none of your business Mr. Mikaelson."

"It is when is disturbing your ability to work." He snapped.

"I'm perfectly fine!" Katherine stood up. "You're the one that seems distracted, though apparently that can happen when you're planning a wedding. Or did you forget that you're getting married, because Miss Gilbert dropped in this morning with a lovely invitation."

Elijah's jaw locked. "Don't start, Katherine."

Katherine pushed back her chair. "Oh, I wasn't the one who started it."

* * *

"Horrible, horrible," Caroline sighed as she looked through the dresses at a small boutique in downtown. She scoffed at she looked at the bright pink and blue patterns. "It's like the slutty look is in."

Caroline saw the way that Katherine had zoned off again. "Katherine, that's the third time you zoned off, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Katherine said as she grasped the edge of a navy blue dress that she would never wear. She could think of a better way to spend her Sunday than shopping for dresses for her boss's wedding, especially since Elijah had been less than friendly recently. "I just really don't want to go to this stupid wedding and you know that Caroline."

"Maybe Elena won't be a total bitch." Caroline shrugged. "In public she will at least pretend to like us."

"It's not about Elena." It was obvious that Caroline wasn't getting it. "Let's just go to another store, this one sucks."

Katherine and Caroline exited the store and paused at the doorway while Caroline searched in her purse for her cell phone.

A giggle. "Damon, stop!"

Both Katherine and Caroline raised their heads. That was Elena's voice, but why had she said Damon? They both knew Damon of course, he was Stefan's older brother. They had interacted a few times, but he hung out with an older crowd. They knew that he and Elena worked in the same law firm, but they hadn't thought that they actually knew each other.

Elena was so stuffy and Damon was so casual.

"Is that them?" Caroline whispered.

Katherine nodded. A few feet away, Damon and Elena were kissing without a care in the world. She was cheating on Elijah, the week before her wedding with Stefan's older brother. She seemed happy. Happier than she had been with Elijah at any rate.

Katherine pulled Caroline inside the store again. "I don't want them to see us."

"I can't believe she would actually cheat on him. She always seemed like a goody goody." Caroline paused. "Are you going to tell, Elijah?"

"Why should I tell him?" Katherine hissed.

"Because he barely acknowledges me. You and he are the ones that are always locked up in that office of his." She whispered. "Katherine, he deserves to know."

Katherine thought about freshman year, when she had been the laughing stock of the entire school. No one had bothered to clue her in. Elijah had apologized, but Katherine would be lying if she said she was completely over it. As nasty and as childish as it sounded, she wanted some form of payback and besides what was she supposed to tell Elijah? Buddy, I'm sorry your girlfriend is a lying, two face skank? She didn't even have proof, she would come out like some desperate loser trying to ruin the wedding. "No, I won't tell him."

-End of Chapter Sixteen-

The Elijah/Elena wedding will be in next chapter . . . or will it? : )


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

"You asked Seth to be your date?" Bonnie asked. The three girls were in Katherine's bedroom the following Saturday getting ready for the wedding. Caroline was going to take Bonnie as her plus one and Katherine had asked Seth apparently.

"Well, I asked him if he wanted to come along." She shrugged as Caroline zipped up her lavender dress. "He asked me if I had any plans this weekend and I just invited him to the wedding, what's the big deal?"

"No one said it was a big deal," Bonnie quickly said as she and Caroline exchanged looks. "Are you dating him?"

Katherine rolled her eyes as she fixed her silver necklace around her neck. "No, is there a rule that says that we can't be friends? We used to play house together believe me that doesn't make Seth dating material."

Caroline didn't look convince. She was already dressed in a pale yellow dress and her blond hair was in a bun. "So are we finally going to meet this mysterious Seth?"

"Yep." Katherine was just painting her lips a light cotton candy pink when Bonnie cleared her throat. "Kat, we don't have to go to this wedding if you really don't want to."

"What?" Caroline whined. "Why not?"

"Because the wedding is of her boss, who in case you've forgotten was her former tormentor." Bonnie scolded.

"Wait," Caroline squinted. "You still don't have a ridiculous crush on him, do you?"

Katherine rapidly shook her head. "No, of course not, don't be silly." She avoided them by pretending to be fixing her curls that we combed back in a low bun. "The relationship between me and Elijah is strictly professional, besides he seems happy with Elena."

* * *

The church where the wedding was taking place was decorated with beautiful orchards and white roses. The Mikaelsons and the Gilberts had really outdone themselves. Everyone was already in positioned by the time the girls arrived.

"We'll go find seats." Bonnie said.

Katherine nodded, she noticed that Elijah was standing a few feet away from the alter looking strangely nervous. "You guys go, I'll be right there." She walked towards Elijah and smiled. "Hi, congratulations."

"I'm not married yet, but thank you." Elijah pursed his lips. "I'm surprised you came, not that I'm not glad . . . I'm just surprise. You look lovely, Katerina."

"Well, you look very handsome." She smiled as she looked over her shoulder. "Seth, over here."

A twitch of annoyance flashed over Elijah's eyes as Seth approached them. "Sorry, I'm late I got a little lost." He offered his hand to Elijah. "Congratulations, man."

"Hello, Sam." Elijah said coolly without bothering to shake his hand. "We better get in position."

"It's Seth actually," Seth called out to him. He turned to Katherine. "What's with him?"

She shook her head. "It's just pre wedding jitters." She didn't think it was worthwhile to mention to Seth that Elijah didn't really like him. "Come on, let's go find our seats."

* * *

Where was she? The question was ringing in Elijah's head. The ceremony was supposed to start at six o'clock. But it was already six-thirty and the guests were becoming restless some of them were even starting to throw him pity looks.

Elijah felt a swell of embarrassment and anger rise up in his chest. Elena had never been late to an appointment in her life. "Mr. Mikaelson," Miss Gretchen, the wedding planner shook nervously. "Please come with me."

"Where is Elena?" he snapped.

Miss Gretchen avoided his eyes. "Please come with me."

Miss Gretchen led Elijah towards an empty room behind the church, where Elena had been getting her last finishing touches. Now the little room was empty and on top of the small chair was Elena's wedding dress and a letter.

"I'm very sorry, sir." Miss Gretchen said as she quickly left.

With trembling fingers he opened the letter, he recognize Elena's handwriting.

_Dear Elijah,_

_I can't do this, not anymore. I can't marry you._

_I'm very sorry to do this on our wedding day but I can't marry you. I can't keep living a lie. I'm in love with Damon Salvatore and we . . . well, you won't see us again. Elijah, I know you don't love me as well._

_It's time that we both wake up. My sincerest apologies._

_Elena_

She was gone. She had left him stranded on their own wedding. Elena hadn't care that their friends and family and coworkers had come. Elijah crumbled the letters into tiny pieces, his throat tightened with each crumbled piece.

* * *

"I'm sorry that the wedding was a bust," Katherine apologized once Seth and Katherine had reached her apartment. The sun was just beginning to set and Katherine felt a slight chill.

"No worries." Seth said. "What happened to your boss though? He just disappeared." The priest had been the one to tell them awkwardly that the wedding had been canceled.

Katherine shrugged. "I don't know. Probably grieving." She paused at her doorway. "Are you sure you don't want to come in? I promise I'll make it up for today."

"No, it's fine." Much to her surprise, Seth kissed her quickly on the lips. "Goodnight, Katherine."

"Seth, wait-"she called out, but Seth was already bolting down the stairs. Katherine touched her lips. Seth had kissed her. Why? And more importantly how did she feel about that?

* * *

A few hours later Katherine had taken off her makeup and showered and was ready for a movie marathon when she heard knocking on the door. Knocking that wouldn't stop. "I'm coming." She called out annoyed. Who was knocking at this hour?

She opened the door and was surprised to see Elijah. He was still in his suit without the jacket and his dark hair was strangely messy. He was obviously drunk, apparently he had taken Elena's no show pretty bad.

"Hello, baby." He said as he kissed her cheek and let himself in.

"Did you drive here?" Katherine demanded. It was lucky that he didn't get in an accident.

He shook his head. "Took a taxi."

Katherine closed the door. "Elijah, you need to go home. I know that today was a bad day-"

"Oh, please Katherine we both know I deserved it." He said as he walked into her bedroom. "I guess Karma does exist. Though I was just fooling myself." He laid on her bed.

Katherine watched him from the doorway, playing along. "What do you mean?"

"Elena and I could barely stand each other." Elijah scoffed. "Why did we ever think we could get married? I guess we just did it to please our families. I'm tired, Katherine."

Katherine looked over her shoulder. "I'll get you coffee that should wake you up."

When Katherine returned she found Elijah sound asleep. Sighing, she walked towards him and took off his shoes and undid his tie. She placed a blanket on top of him and made her way to the couch.

If Karma wasn't real, Déjà vu certainly was.

-End of Chapter Seventeen-


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

Elijah's eyes slowly opened when he smelled the lavender-lilac scented pillow that his head was resting on. He immediately knew it wasn't his pillow. He raised his head and saw a medium size purple and white room with cutesy decorations and the portrait of a sunset. Definitely not his room.

Elijah slowly sat up feeling the pounding headache that usually followed a hangover. He remembered drinking a little too much last night humiliated by Elena's departure. Now where was he?

He blinked twice. Wait, this room was eerily familiar, he had come here in a similar situation, but the roles had been reverse. This was Katherine's room. His ex-girlfriend's room, his assistant's room.

Elijah quickly stood up and rummage a hand through his dark hair that was standing up in spikes, feeling more asleep that awake. He needed to get out of here and fast, where were his shoes?

Elijah exited the room and much to his horror at that moment, Katherine came in carrying two cups of coffee and a small box of donuts and bagels. "Leaving so soon?" she asked cheerfully. "I brought coffee."

Elijah didn't respond, but he took the cup that she was handing him. "Your shoes are over there by the way," Katherine pointed towards the corner of the room. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"What happened?" he finally croaked.

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "Take a wild guess."

"I ended up celebrating by myself and somehow ended up at your apartment. Great." The coffee burned his tongue. "Did I do anything that I might regret?"

"Compare to me no." she sat across from him in the kitchen counter. "Though if you call me baby again I will personally hang you from one of your million dollar ties."

"They do not cost a million dollars." Elijah corrected, the coffee was helping him clear his head. "Thanks for the coffee, I owe you one."

"Consider this my way of returning the favor, breakfast?" she handed him the box full of donuts and bagels. "I'm sorry about you and Elena."

She wasn't really, but that's what most people would say under the circumstances.

"I really don't want to talk about it." Elijah grumbled as he grabbed a bagel. "I and Mr. Whisky already had a long talk about that last night."

Katherine nodded. "Duly noted." She eyed the way that Elijah's hair was in dark spikes and he wasn't clean shaven like he usually was. "Can we talk about your hair though, I never knew it was so spiky and I don't think I've ever seen you with facial hair before."

"What's wrong with my hair?" he asked defensively.

"Nothing," Katherine insisted laughing. "It doesn't look bad and you don't look that bad when you don't completely shave. You kind of look like that guy from the discovery channel, you know the one looking for venomous snakes in the wild."

Elijah smirked. "Exactly the look I was going for." He paused. "Do you think Stefan knew?"

The smile faded from Katherine's face. She knew he was talking about the Damon-Elena affair. "No, I don't think he did." She replied honestly. "Stefan and Damon have never had the best relationship." Even though there were brothers it was quite well known that the brothers barely spoke to each other. Katherine doubted that Stefan knew about the affair. And if he had unlike Katherine, Stefan would actually warn Elijah.

"I didn't think so," Elijah rummaged a hand through his dark hair. "Anyone who could have known you, Stefan, maybe even Caroline would have told me."

Katherine squirmed uncomfortably. "Are you ok?"

Elijah didn't answer for a long while. "Yeah . . . I might even feel relieved. A divorce would have been messier."

"Good." She said quickly. "I heard divorces are a nightmare especially when kids are involved."

"I'm not really a kid person." He started putting on his shoes. He petted Katherine's cheek before he gently kissed her forehead. "Thank you, for last night."

"You're welcome." Katherine said faintly. Katherine heard the door close and she let out a sigh of relief. She closed her eyes and she pressed herself against the door, she couldn't believe that she and Elijah had, had an actual decent conversation.

She bit her lip guiltily, maybe she should have told him that she knew, but she didn't want him to hate her. "Don't do this to yourself, Pierce," she told herself and then there was Seth who had kissed her, but hadn't called her since.

Katherine sat on her couch, why did life have to be so complicated sometimes?

* * *

Elijah watched as the pictures, everything that he had that included Elena burn in the fireplace at his apartment. He felt relieved as he watched the pictures burn. He was determine to forget Elena, a person he hadn't even been sure that he loved (they had fought more than they had talked) and move on with his life and avoid any more mistakes.

It was time to start fresh.

-End of Chapter Eighteen-

Thanks for your reviews!


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

_Four Months Later. . ._

"I'll see you after work?" Seth asked Katherine, his girlfriend for the past three months. True to her word, Katherine had pushed whatever lovey dovey feelings she had for Elijah aside and tried to concentrate on a new healthier relationship. With Seth.

It hadn't been really exciting, mind you Katherine's heart didn't leap or jump like she had expected it too when she saw Seth. It just stood still. Katherine knew real life relationships weren't like in the movies, but she still expected something.

Seth was sweet, there was no doubt about that, but Katherine still continued seeing him like the boy that she had played in the sandbox with. They hadn't even had sex yet and honestly Katherine wasn't looking forward to it.

Once or twice, Katherine had thought about breaking off the relationship, it was clear that she wasn't into it. Even Caroline had lost all the excitement about the potential Katherine-Seth relationship. According to her, a pair of goldfish were more exciting.

But Katherine didn't have the heart to break up with Seth, he just looked so happy and besides weren't some relationships boring at first and then started to get really exciting?

"Kat?" Seth prompted as he pushed back a dark curl from her face, cupping her cheek. "You ok?"

She nodded, "I'm fine." She looked towards the buildings where the silver Mikaelson & Co. sign was shining brightly. "It's just I should get going. Call me about dinner later, ok?"

Katherine entered the building with a sigh of relief. She hated lading Seth on, but honestly she didn't know what else to do. Her life was such a mess lately, and her life wasn't the only one. She couldn't believe all that happened in the last four months.

Caroline and Stefan had started dating (though Stefan still blushed whenever he saw Katherine see them kissing.)

Bonnie got a new boyfriend, another male nurse called Marcel who worked at the same hospital where she worked and was like a ball of sunshine every time that Katherine saw her.

Damon and Elena were still MIA, but Katherine had heard a rumor that they had rented a place in L.A. and they probably got new jobs.

And then there was Elijah. Everyone who worked at Mikaelson & Co. knew that Elijah had gotten dumped and left at the altar, but most of them were too polite to say anything about it. But if Elijah was upset, he didn't show it. He practically lived in his office right now and seemed to dedicate himself solely to his work.

Elijah often came in before Caroline and Katherine and left hours later.

Katherine couldn't help but noticed that he seemed even more tired than usual and she couldn't shake off the worry than she felt whenever she saw him looking so tired.

"Katherine," Stefan smiled when Katherine entered the elevator. "Wait up."

She kept the door open for Stefan and he nodded in gratitude. Once the elevator doors closed Katherine noticed that Stefan was holding a small vase filled with yellow roses. "Are those for Caroline?"

He nodded, a slight blush coating his cheeks. It was so adorable. "It's our first month anniversary today."

"Well congratulations," Katherine told him. "She'll love them."

"Katherine . . . I know."

Katherine frowned. "Know what?"

"That you knew about Damon and Elena before the wedding," he blurted out. "Caroline told me."

She hissed. "I'm going to kill her." She rested her back against the wall. "Be honest, am I a horrible person for not telling Elijah? I mean Elena looked like such a goody two shoes I certainly didn't expect her to ditch him. Should I have told him?"

Stefan shrugged. "Well, it's a little late for that now. It's not your fault, Katherine don't stress about it." The elevator doors opened and Stefan headed towards Caroline who greeted him with a squeal as she hugged him.

Katherine exited the elevator and saw Elijah working on his computer, strangely the door was open. Katherine looked at him for a little while before she headed towards her desk. Things had cooled off between them, they were back to Mr. Mikaelson and Miss Pierce.

* * *

The clock pinned against the wall read 8:30 PM, but Katherine was still in the office. Elijah had let Caroline leave early (most likely because Caroline had been a squealing, over exciting mess all day) so Katherine had stayed back and promised to finish her work and then Elijah had asked if she could stay behind for a couple of extra hours.

Elijah hadn't asked her to do that in months, so she had agreed.

So now the two of them were sitting in his office across from each other looking over financial reports, files, and shipping arrangements in complete silence. Or it would be in complete silence if Katherine's phone didn't start buzzing every five seconds.

Elijah finally lost his temper. "If your boyfriend Sam needs you so much, then perhaps you should leave Miss Pierce."

Katherine raised an eyebrow. How did Elijah even know that she and Seth were dating, the man paid more attention to his phone than to her. "I turned off my phone, sorry and it's Seth by the way."

"Your personal life is of no interested to me." Elijah stood up and faced her, taking the papers from her. "You can leave now, Miss Pierce."

Katherine scoffed as she stood up. "If you don't care so much then why do you seem to know so much about it? And why do you get all tense by the mere mention of Seth's name. You say that you don't care about my personal life yet you can even stand Seth. You're my boss, you shouldn't be telling me who I can or cannot date-"

Elijah broke up her argument by pressing a hand on the small of her back and kissing her.

-End of Chapter Nineteen-

Thanks for your reviews! And thank you to reviewer, Daisella13 for her idea :)


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

Katherine felt Elijah's lips on hers, her hands slid to the back on his neck while his hands rested on her lower back. His kisses were warm and soft and he kissed her almost hungrily as his hands rummage across her back.

"Elijah," she murmured as Elijah started kissing her neck. "We can't-"

"Please, Katerina." He murmured, "Don't do this."

Katherine closed her eyes as Elijah braced her against the wall. Katherine reached to take off Elijah's suit jacket and she felt Elijah pull up her skirt until her little purple panties were showing.

He started fondling her thighs while Katherine began unbuttoning his shirt between kisses.

"Not here." She said suddenly, between breaths. "Let's go back to your apartment."

Elijah nodded almost weakly as he slowly started pulling down her skirt. "All right."

* * *

Neither Elijah nor Katherine knew how they managed to drive to Elijah's apartment and calmly close the door as if nothing had happened earlier. Because as soon as Elijah closed the door, Katherine practically jumped in his arms. Her legs wrapped around his waist as she slowly kissed him and took off his shirt.

Elijah took off her blouse and unzipped her skirt and left them in a pathetic crumble in the hallway. "I need you." Elijah mumbled as Katherine gave him a slow nod, ignoring all the signals in her head that were telling her that this was a bad idea.

Elijah managed to get the door open of his room as he placed Katherine on the bed. Katherine sat up on her knees and started taking of the belt that was holding his pants together. Before she could completely loosen them, Elijah pushed her back against the bed causing for Katherine to break out into loud giggles.

Elijah's hands caressed her back while her managed to unhook her bra releasing her breasts, he gently squeezed one while his other hand disappeared inside her panties, which he removed with one quick tug. He caressed her wet folds and Katherine's hips bucked.

"Someone is excited." He teased her as he whispered into her ear. His finger teasing her swollen clit. A rush of arousal and excitement spread through Katherine's body and Elijah continued teasing her.

Katherine manage to pull away from Elijah and push him down on the bed, with her on top of him. In one quick motion Katherine managed to pull down Elijah's pants and boxers leaving him equally naked.

Katherine smirked as she stared at his growing cock. "It's not like I'm the only one."

Elijah pulled her forward for a kiss, rummaging a hand through her curls, Katherine's own hands were caressing his back and chest, wanting to touch every inch of him. "Elijah, I need you."

Katherine gripped his shoulders as she tugged his dark hair with her other hand as Elijah thrust into her, her hips moving to each of his thrusts, trying to feel everything. She dug her nails in his hips as Elijah gently nibbled on her earlobe.

"Katherine." He murmured as he rested his forehead against hers.

Katherine nodded slowly as she rested her head back on the pillow. She caressed his cheek.  
"I'm here."

* * *

Katherine woke up and sat up with a start when she realized that she was definitely not in her room, the thoughts of last night were a mess in her brain even if she had been perfectly sober. She looked to her side and saw Elijah, her boss sleeping peacefully next to her while she had ditched her boyfriend the night before.

Katherine felt shame spread through her whole body and she wanted to hit herself across the head. _Nice going, Pierce._

She quickly put on her underwear and clothes from last night, her heels were in a seat across the bed and she went back to grab them, not caring that her curls were in a mess. She just needed to get out of here now.

"Katerina, where are you going?"

Katherine flinched as she turned around. "Mr. M-I mean, Elijah, I was just, um, going home." She stammered.

Elijah looked at her amused. "You don't have to leave . . . at least not yet." He pated the side of the bed where Katherine had spent the night in.

Katherine bit her lip. "I can't."

"You can't?"

"It isn't right," she explained. "Me and you . . . we can't have anything, I work for you and we already made the same mistake once and believe me, I am in no hurry to do it again."

"Katerina, were not in high school anymore." He said as he put on his pajama pants that had been lying on the floor. "And it's not like we planned this-"he tried to grasped her hand, but Katherine pulled away.

"No, Elijah I have a boyfriend and we wouldn't work well together," she said quickly. "We can't be together, not after everything-"

"Is this about high school-"

"It has nothing to do with high school, ok." Katherine blurted out. "I knew, ok. I knew Elena and Damon were seeing each other a week before the wedding. I saw them kissing near a department store and I didn't tell you because I didn't think she would stood you up."

Elijah's facial expression twisted and he looked both angry and hurt. "You knew Katherine and you didn't tell me. Why?" Elijah didn't give her a chance to respond. "No, don't answer that. I really don't want to hear what you have to say, get out."

"Elijah-"Katherine responded weakly.

"No, you heard me." Elijah said firmly. "Get out."

Katherine sucked in her breath as she turned around. "Fine." And without a look back, she left the apartment.

-End of Chapter Twenty-


End file.
